McCann Melbourne took the top award and Gold, as well as a Bronze for their Impossible Orchestra campaign, while Havas Worldwide Australia celebrated success with Doug Pitt, a mechanical arm, and some innovative undies.

A partnership with One Green Bean took out a Silver and Bronze for the Virgin Mobile campaign, and it bagged a Silver on its own for the Durex ‘Fundawear’ project.

Meanwhile, its own PR specialists The Red Agency won Silver and Bronze for The Most Powerful Arm Ever Invented campaign.

Managing director James Wright was also a judge on the panel, and told B&T the decision to give the top prize to McCann was almost unanimous.

He said: “We wanted to award the prize to a truly iconic campaign which will be talked about for decades.

“We had jurors whose first language isn’t English saying their kids were singing it around the breakfast table, it transcends the generations.

“It’s just a few years [2009] since the Greatest Job in the World won here, and a lot of the tourism entries compared themselves to that. I think in years to come behaviour changing entries will compare themselves to this.”

He also described his own awards as “a nice nod to an interesting way to use a new technology”.

However, it is the fifth year an advertising agency has taken out the top prize, denyng specialist PR agencies, but jury president David Gallagher, CEO of Ketchum, said the standard of PR entries was creeping up.

He added: “My message to PR agencies is to make sure your best work finds its way to Cannes.”

He also predicted a “renaissance for PR” adding: “What we saw this year is we can do great work on smaller budgets.”

Signing in with LinkedIn

Please wait while we sign you in with LinkedIn.

This may take some time.

Please be patient and do not refresh the page.

(A new window from LinkedIn should open for you to authorize the B&T login. If you don't see this please check behind this window, and if it is still not there check your browser settings and turn off the pop-up blocker.)